We Say, We Promise Forever
by TheCivilState
Summary: They needed nothing but each other... and the women they loved.  Original Brothers.


_Our souls are all we own_

It had always been them against the world. Them against other vampires, against witches, against werewolves… against their parents. And there had been times when they had been against each other; choosing sides and fighting and refusing to speak for decades.

The worst of it had been in 1311 almost two hundred years after Klaus had daggered Finn and locked in a coffin somewhere. Kol had disappeared for fear of the same happening to him and Elijah had followed to keep an eye on his younger brother. As always, Rebekah sided with Klaus and vowed to remain with her brother till death. And then word came.

_Klaus, Kol was bitten by a werewolf._

It had been a time before they knew werewolf bites were harmless against them, the Originals. The only knowledge they had at the time was one of Rebekah's pets had been bitten and had died shortly after. The thought of losing Kol… maddening.

"Don't think so hard, brother, I do believe I see smoke coming out of your ears." Klaus turned away from the past and found his brother standing in the doorway of his study with a smirk on his face.

"Trying to figure out a way to win fair Caroline?" the younger Original teased, "I could give you some pointers." Klaus had Kol in a headlock and knocked him on the head with his fist. Kol broke the hold and dashed away, taunting his brother from the far side of the room.

"Come, come," he teased, "What's the big bad wolf thinking about?"

"The time you were bitten by a wolf." Kol sobered, as did Klaus. It was a moment in their shared history they did not often bring up. A moment where their family came together as one and there was no fighting in-house. A moment where they made promises they never ended up keeping.

"You promised me a ball," Kol said, "A birthday celebration if I survived. It's been seven hundred years; suppose you could deliver now?" Klaus grinned and chased after his baby brother who went racing through the house screaming so his other siblings would hear him.

"We're going to have a party!"

_Let's go to sleep with clearer heads_

_And hearts too big to fit our beds_

"A party?" Violet groaned as Aria sifted through racks of dresses. The blonde reached behind her without even looking and smacked Violet's arm.

"Yes, a party," she lectured, "To celebrate Kol's birthday."

"He's a billion," Violet said, "He's had enough birthdays." This time, when Aria reached for her, she ducked and ran to the other side of the rack.

"I'm not attending."

"Yes, you are."

"But I'm not wearing a dress."

"Yes, Violet, you are." She bit back a growl and when the hovering saleswoman looked away, Violet bared her fangs at Aria who didn't even look up from her search for the perfect dress. Or dresses. One for herself and one for Violet who would suffer through the Spanish Inquisition again rather than wear a dress to a party celebrating Kol.

"I thought you liked him," Aria said and Violet rolled her eyes.

"Not enough to wear a dress."

_Maybe we won't feel so alone_

"I need a tie and a suit and a different shirt and where's Elijah? He's always been better at this than me." Finn and Klaus stood in the doorway of Kol's room watching their youngest brother tear his wardrobe to pieces in search of the 'perfect' outfit.

"Trying to impress someone?" Klaus teased and ducked when Kol threw a shoe at him. Finn, calm as ever, stepped into the pit that was Kol's room and casually pulled together a suit. He even went so far as to put it on a hanger and hook it onto Kol's mirror. His brother stood gaping at him and his brilliance as he returned to his original position beside Klaus.

"I don't understand why you're not freaking out," Kol said, "Caroline and Aria are coming and yet you're standing here as if you've faced down an entire Roman Legion and they're just two girls."

"We have faced down an entire Roman Legion," Klaus said, "Or at least I have." He looked over at Finn who was staring at Kol's suit and mentally assessing his own wardrobe.

"Come to think of it," Finn said, "Where is Elijah?"

His younger brothers were panicking when Elijah returned home with suits for all of them. Even after all this time, the men of the Mikaelson family fussed more with their looks than their baby sister.

_I know that I am nothing new_

_There's so much more than me and you_

"So what's going on with you and that Gilbert girl?" Kol asked as he finished adjusting his tie. Elijah handed him a glass of bourbon and gave him a small toast.

"Happy birthday, brother." They clinked glasses, but Kol was far from done.

"Come now," he said, "It is my birthday and I've asked a question. Are you so smitten you can't formulate a response?" From his seat on the couch, Klaus muffled a laugh into his hand as Finn watched with quiet amusement at the antics of his brothers.

"Elijah is irrevocably in love with the lovely Elena," Klaus teased, "Now if only he would tell her."

"I have an idea!" Kol proclaimed as his siblings laughed at their brother's excitement, "And because it is my birthday celebration, you must all indulge me and take this bet."

It was bait and they all knew it. The weakness of the Mikaelson boys was that they were all horribly competitive. One need only breathe the mention of a bet and they would all volunteer as eager participants.

"Each of us has a lady attending tonight," Kol said, "And while it might seem rather uncouth of gentlemen such as ourselves, I would like to see which of us can get our significant lady into bed first." There was amusement and slight cry of protest from Elijah, but Kol, as always, was quick to beat everyone's argument with his own logic.

"Just think of it," he said, "Elena would finally know how Elijah feels towards her, Finn and Aria would be together after how long? a million years?, and Klaus is in need of a good shagging if we ever want to see his humor again." Kol ducked an dodged Klaus as the older brother chased him around the room while Finn and Elijah stood shaking their head at their younger brother's antics.

"And what of you?" Elijah asked, "What would sleeping with Violet achieve?" Kol stopped and just about swallowed his tongue as all eyes came to rest on him. He was thankful in that moment that vampires didn't sweat or blush or exhibit any other outward expressions of nervousness.

"Oh yes," Finn said, "I do believe we have ourselves a bet."

_Brother how we must atone_

"She is beautiful," Elijah remarked, gesturing down to Violet who stood with her arm linked with Aria's. The girls were a vision in gray and gold respectively and opposite them stood Elena and Caroline, both dressed for the party as well.

"They both are," Finn said, smiling at Violet who cast a brief look up to them where they stood at the top of the staircase.

"And Caroline is quite the looker," Kol said, nudging his brother to lighten the mood, "As is Elena. It's decided brothers; we all have superb taste in women."

"And yet they don't like us," Klaus said as he began to descend down to the foyer.

"Speak for yourself!" Kol called after him and Klaus turned to smile at his brothers.

They stood there for a moment and let the centuries wash over them. Finn's foray into pirating and Elijah's stint as the Pope of Rome. Klaus' turn as a king and Kol's failed attempt at forming his own country. Finn's centuries locked in a coffin. Elijah losing Katerina. Kol's werewolf bite. Klaus finding himself alone for a decade when he realized he'd accidentally daggered all his siblings leaving him entirely alone. _Never again_, he vowed, _Never again._

"Are you coming down?" Violet called up to them and the men all descended the stairs, joining the women below who all smiled and adjusted their ties for them.

"You're hopeless without us," Aria said and Caroline agreed, telling Klaus to stop smirking before she slapped him. Elena laughed and Elijah decided he liked the sound of her laughter very much. Silently, the brothers altered the terms of Kol's bet.

Violet thought she was being teased when Kol said he loved her; Aria was calmer and returned Finn's sentiments. Caroline didn't believe Klaus, but he'd never liked anything to be easy and promised to change her mind.

As for Elena, well… Elijah was never alone again.

None of them were.

_Before we turn to stone_

_[song fic inspired by "Turn To Stone" by Ingrid Michaelson]_


End file.
